Quote:
Originally Posted by Little Bear
Here's one: Travel along the west side of Little Bear Island, on a south to north heading. At flashing light # 10 (at the passage between Little Bear and Long Island) you will find a white/black marker accompanying the flashing light. The compass heading shows you are heading north at that time, so logic would say pass to the east of the spar and light marker. This is the wrong side.
The markers are marking the passage on a west/east course, so you would correctly pass to the north of the markers. This is confusing and I have seen dozens of boats pass on the wrong side over the years. The proper passage side is directed by the course that the markers are marking. Another one is the red marker over by the Idlewild mail dock on Cow Island. Same thing. It's marking a north/south course, so the correct passage is to the west. Yet if you are approaching on an east/west course, you would incorrectly pass to the south of the marker. It's a flawed, lousy system.
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Ok lets talk Lighted marker #10 first. I know this well.If your on a Northerly course you are actually headed directly at Long Island You bear to the east to come up and go through the passage, passing the lighted back top spar to the North side of it. You are also passing the second back spar to the North. I don't understand how this is confusing. There is also the red spar before the lighted black which when on a Northerly course you are passing to the west of....
No lets talk to the Cow Island issue, as you come in from the south between ragged and cow, you have a Red top spar of ragged which you have pass on the southern side off, you proceed up the cut and pass to the west of a second red marker, then you go to the north and east of the lighted back 41 and turn back to a northerly route and pass the last red mark to the west . Now if you wish to go into idlewild you of course need go to the south of second red that actually brings you into that cut.
You have to process these scenarios with knowledge of your heading. and process all the markers in that area for it all to make sense. People often think they can turn directly after a mark and that is simply not the case.
I don't mean to sound like a broken record here, but at one time I too found this all very confusing. But then I began to dig into more, so that I had the understanding of how to navigate the lake. I of course have a map at all times, and someday my even get a GPS, as I do more night boating now, something about looking at the stars is pretty cool. The bottom line is you have to process all the information. Having a maps is good, because the dotted lines take the processing of your position out of the equation. But does that really make you safe and comfortable? I know it didn't make me comfortable, it wasn't until I really studied my headings and understood the marker system that I really got comfortable with navigating the lake.
Please don't read into my comments to deep, I am not ridiculing anyone, what I am stating is that there is more to navigating then just looking at a chart with dotted lines to make the process easy, if you really want to understand how well marked the lake really is you have to focus on understanding your heading and how to apply the markers to that heading.
I find this lake incredibly well marked. And if you get disoriented as to where North really is, it is very very easy to end up in trouble. I myself am not perfect, and have ended up on the wrong side of a marker. I beet myself up over it, make sure I know why I was wrong, and why it was marked the way it was. Once I rationize it all, I come to the conclusion, that I had a lapse in judgement, and the Markers are indeed correct.